Blog Viewer

We hear a lot about big data and advanced analytics in the media today.  You cannot look at the business news and technology sections without seeing something related to these topics.  And now we are seeing the types of jobs associated with analytics rising in popularity.  According to a recent survey cited by Business Insider, the top jobs for 2015 include the following:

1     Actuary                                 $94,209

2     Audiologist                            $71,133

3     Mathematician                     $102,182

4     Statistician                           $79,191

5     Biomedical Engineer             $89,165

6     Data Scientist                      $124,149

7     Dental Hygienist                    $71,102

8     Software Engineer                 $93,113

9     Occupational Therapist         $77,114

10   Computer Systems Analyst   $81,150

Of these 10, four of the professional titles include data analytics in their responsibilities: Actuary, Mathematician, Statistician and Data Scientist.  The Data Scientist clocks in with the highest mid-level income at $124,149 annually.

I have been writing and blogging about the evolving role of management accountants in senior positions like CFOs that are facing opportunities – and pressure – that increasingly involve advanced data analytics to feed data-driven decision making. This is a strategic way to move CFOs higher up the value chain as business strategists, moving them away from transactional and operational roles to more strategic ones in which they help guide the business to economic growth and prosperity. CFOs have the opportunity to become data stewards and data scientists for their organizations, cultivating more insights out of the mountains of information they create, gather and process. One of my recent TechTalk blogs on the rise of the hybrid CFTO talks about this in more detail. 

This also relates closely to the development and oversight of an effective data governance strategy at the company – CFOs, in their evolving roles as data stewards, data scientists and strategic advisors, also need to ensure that the data governance strategy is in place to ensure that the information they analyze is accessible, reliable and consumable for the analytics.  Another of my recent TechTalk blogs discusses this point in more detail.

I think the survey results on top jobs reinforce the opportunity for management accountants – both current and future members of the profession – to aspire to be data scientists. These jobs are in demand, and the compensation is attractive to many practitioners.